Posts tagged ‘charter schools’

To unseat what essentially is a ghost incumbent in the 14th district of northern Illinois, Democrat Dennis Anderson has decided to take his message to the people of the district by holding 20-25 town hall meetings. In St. Charles on Tuesday, Anderson said the only thing that will prevent more meetings is securing venues to hold them.

This is Anderson’s

second run for this office and he feels he learned a lot from the previous loss to make him a much stronger candidate. Anderson, who is now retired, said he is not looking for a career in politics. He vowed to do his best to address the issues of the day and if the voters of the district liked his accomplishments they would return him to office. With approximately fifty voters in attendance, Anderson limited his opening comments to a brief history of his past. After that he began taking questions regarding his views on every possible issue facing the nation today.

Pam Verner took the time to contact all 18 school districts and ask when the school board planned on voting for or against the K12 Inc. application for a charter school. Thanks to Heather Steans, Stand for Children, and wealthy charter school backers, the law (SB79) requires school districts to vote 30 days after the public hearing.

While the public comments section is officially closed, we are still encouraging people to attend these hearings, add your comments of opposition at the beginning of the meeting and have your voice heard. Here are the dates that school districts said they anticipated a vote:

State Senator Heather Steans and Stand for Children are ultimately responsible for Chicago school closings and the recent increase of charter school applications like the 18-district virtual charter initiated by K12 Inc. in the Chicago suburbs.

Rahm Emanuel, Barb Byrd-Bennett, Heather Steans, Jonah Edelman

I started researching SB79 and HB 5825, the legislation that created and gave the Illinois Charter Commission super “override powers” and autonomy from the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE). If SB7 gave education activists concern, SB79 and HB 5825 should have started a five-alarm fire.

K12 Inc., a for-profit virtual learning company is pitching their services to 18 Illinois school districts, attempting to exploit Illinois’ weak charter laws. K12 Inc. executives have handled presentations at 16 of the 18 schools in which they have submitted an application for a virtual charter. Geneva’s school district 304 held a hearing on March 11th and the applicant did not show. The final hearing is in District 365U (Romeoville and Bolingbrook).

Please join Northern Illinois Jobs with Justice (RSVP via this link) at the final public hearing to express your opposition to K12 Inc’s taxpayer rip-off scheme. This Wall Street company is trying to rip-off taxpayers in the amount of $8,000 per customer (students that they sign up).

New rules allow an Illinois charter school to apply for a charter from a local school district and appeal any rejections to the Illinois Charter Commission.

As of this blog post writing, I am aware that K12 Inc. has applied for charter schools in 18 school districts in the Chicago Suburbs. Please plan on attending these hearings (listed below) to ask the board to reject this scandalous business.

In addressing local school boards we need to let them know that K12 Inc. is a business that pays their CEO $3.9 million dollars per year and offers returns to investors. It is not a school. Our tax money is being diverted from the classroom to the pockets of the wealthy. K12 Inc. may perform well on Wall Street, but they don’t perform well in the virtual learning environment. And, according to Channel 5 News in Tennessee, when K12 Inc. fails to perform, they instruct teachers to “delete grades.”

As the Chicago public school teachers’ strike enters its second day, we’re joined by the journalist and author Chris Hedges. “The teacher strike in Chicago is arguably one of the most important labor actions in probably decades,” Hedges says. “If it does not prevail, you can be certain that the template for the attack on the union will be carried out across the country against other teachers unions and against the last redoubt of union activity, which is in the public sector of course, fireman and police.” Hedges continues, “It is always the ruling class that determines the parameters of rebellion and resistance. And the Chicago strike illustrates the bankruptcy of both traditional labor and the Democratic Party. And that is why the Occupy movement was so important.” Hedges is the author of the new book with illustrator Joe Sacco, “Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt.”

School is out in Chicago for a second day as public school teachers continue their first strike in 25 years. Almost 30,000 teachers and their support staff have walked out over reforms sought by the city’s powerful Mayor, Rahm Emanuel, who is President Obama’s former chief of staff. On Monday, tens of thousands teachers, parents and students marched in the streets of President Obama’s adopted hometown. We go to Chicago to speak with Democracy Now! correspondent Jaisal Noor.